Sexual behavioral factors of the subjects visiting the clinic of sexually transmitted infections in Northern Finland: A cross-sectional study among 775 subjects

Abstract

Background and aims: Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are among the most common infections globally. However, the sexual behavioral factors and sexual history of people visiting STI clinics have only been surveyed in a few studies. We aimed to evaluate the characteristics of the patients visiting the open STI clinic.

Methods: This is a prospective observational study performed in the STI clinic in the premises of Department of Dermatology, Oulu University Hospital. All individuals (n = 775) attending the STI clinic between February and August 2022 were included to the study and the profile of the patients was evaluated.

Results: We found that the majority of the STI clinic attendees (58.5%) were female. Mean age of the study population was 28.9 years, with females being significantly younger than males (p < 0.001). Only one-third (30.6%) of the patients reported having symptoms at the time of attending. Most commonly, patients had had one sex partner in the last 6 months. However, one-fifth (21.7%) reported several sex partners (over four). Almost half of the patients (47.6%) reported using a condom only randomly. Those with heterosexual orientation had fewer multiple-sex partners (p < 0.001) than those with homo- or bisexual orientation (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: It is important to increase knowledge about the profile of STI clinic visitors to effectively target STI prevention on the groups at the highest risk of STIs.

Keywords: condom use; sex partner; sexual behavior; sexual risky behavior; sexually transmitted infection.